Pollard, Narine shine in West Indies' four-wicket win
RSA 188 (46.5 Ovs)
WI 191/6 (48.1 Ovs)
West Indies won by 4 wkts
PLAYER OF THE MATCH
Sunil Narine
So, let's put it this way - This has been a day of comebacks. First Sunil Narine and then Kieron Pollard. After the mystery bowler Spi-N-arined the South Africans, Polly answered with the bat to silence his critics and succeeded in P-O-L-L-A-R-D-I-N-G the proteas. Overall, it has been a solid, yet sensible stuff from the Caribbean men. The tri-series Titanic has just taken off. Next stop - West Indies versus Australia, same venue on Sunday. Hoping to see you then! To whichever part of the globe you may belong to - Have a joyous weekend! Till next time, Raju Peethala bids farewell on behalf of Pratyush Sinha, Sriram and Pradeep. Ciao!!
Narine: "It's good to get the West Indies colors on and get the wickets. Feels really nice to be among wickets. I don't think there is a secret to my bowling. Just back your strengths and give your 100 percent. It's always frustrating watching cricket from the sidelines but you need to train hard and always focus on coming back strong. I can say I have remodeled my action around 70-80 percent. They both are class teams and we have to bring out our best in the remaining games."
Sunil Narine - Man of the Match - 6/27 - His career best figures
Holder: "It's a very good win and it's always nice to start the tournament off with a win. I thought they started well with the bat but we did well to pull things back towards the end. Kieron just played a brilliant innings, it was pleasing to see the way guys are composed. The batters could have done it a little bit easier, should have rotated the strike more often I reckon. These two teams are top-class teams and you can never consider them lightly. He (Pollard) played his game, backed himself and that's his game. Showed how good a batsman he is."
ABD: "We were short of runs. We assessed the wicket well, but we let ourselves down with the bat. The wicket was a bit slow, but I thought somewhere around 220 would have been a decent target. Rilee and I got into a nice partnership, but unfortunately I couldn't carry on. That was a great catch from Jerome. The bowlers bowled exceptionally well. Sunil Narine is one of the best bowlers in the world and he is always tough to handle. We lost our way in the last 10 overs and hope we come back strong against Australia in the next game."
Who, tell me who, expected this - shooting down a recent nemesis in South Africa for a paltry 188, thanks to Sunil Narine's roaring return, and then chasing it without tremors. Yes, there were plays-and-misses early on, South Africa did drop catches and then bullied Rabada to not refer a plumb LBW not given, but West Indies recovered well from those twin strikes by Tahir, who should arguably have been bowling sooner. After Samuels and Ramdin followed the openers back to the pavilion, thanks to Phangiso, Pollard walked in to wield and scored a breezy run-a-ball 67. Bravo proved a worthy partner in a steady partnership that almost steered West Indies home.
www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/80376/kier...in-over-south-africa
